Seventh International Symposia on Avian Influenza

Abstract

The Seventh Avian Influenza Symposium Proceedings represents a unique resource to the avian influenza community. A total of 106 papers were accepted after a thorough peer review process. This represents a 30% increase in accepted papers from the Fifth AI Symposium (80 papers) or the Sixth AI Symposium (74 papers). I believe this increase is a reflection of the value that contributors have for the impact and reach of the proceedings as published in Avian Diseases. Another factor that makes the symposium of such importance to the avian influenza community is the diverse group of researchers that participate to discuss both the basic and applied aspects of avian influenza. The diversity was purposefully broadened for this year’s symposium to include a focus on avian influenza in wild birds. Although influenza studies in wild birds have always been part of the symposium, the recent change in the virus that allows H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to infect and spread in wild birds posed a new threat of the introduction of HPAI infection directly to domestic poultry. This fundamental change in the virus led to a massive increase in wild bird surveillance for avian influenza with an increased emphasis on improving our understanding of the ecology of avian influenza in wild birds. The continued interest in avian influenza, even during a period of economic turmoil, resulted in a record 411 people participating in the Seventh Avian Influenza Symposium. The proceedings also reflect the diversity in the participants, and the end result is a unique set of manuscripts that touches upon almost every aspect of the disease. The Symposium also had the chance to recognize excellence in research from the next generation of scientists. Three students, Jawad Nazir, Taiana P. Costa, and Brandon Z. Londt, and three post-doctoral researchers, Drs. Helena L. Ferreira, Matthias Muller, and Christine A. Jansen, won awards for best poster at the meeting. Congratulations to all for your outstanding research. The attendance of the symposium and manuscript submission for the proceedings greatly exceeded our expectations and placed a major demand on the time of all the organizers of the conference and proceedings. The increased number of manuscripts particularly placed a heavy burden on the managing editor of Avian Diseases, Dr. Sylvia Sharma, who worked extremely hard to process all the manuscripts. She was always extremely patient in getting me up to speed on the editorial system. So I would like to provide a special thank you to Sylvia. I also have to thank the Guest Editorial Board, who all reviewed a number of manuscripts and provided insightful observations and comments to help improve the manuscripts that were accepted. I also reached out to a number of ad hoc reviewers, sometimes on multiple occasions, to complete the peer review process. This effort was complicated even further by the pandemic H1N1 outbreak, because I know a number of my reviewers helped join the fight to help characterize the ‘‘new’’ virus in poultry, swine, and humans. The phrase ‘‘No rest for the weary’’ seems appropriate. However when I went to find the original source for this phrase, it appears to be a variation of the phrase ‘‘No rest for the wicked.’’ Although that phrase may also be appropriate, I will stick with the former. Finally, I would also like to thank the editor of Avian Diseases, Jagdev Sharma, for his support for this project. The publication of the proceedings under the guidelines and privileges of Avian Diseases greatly increases the reach of the information by increasing its availability through libraries, the regular subscribers of Avian Diseases, and internet access for articles through the Avian Diseases website. The indexing of articles in PubMed and other research databases also greatly increases the reach of the information in the proceedings. I also need to thank Dr. Sharma, who also was the editor on a number of manuscripts to avoid issues of conflict of interest. Again I would like to thank all the people that have made the symposium and the proceedings a major success, and I look forward to seeing you at the Eighth International Symposium on Avian Influenza.